RuneScape: Dragonwilds Early Access Preview – A First Look at Survival in Ashenfall

by Jim Smale · May 2, 2025

RuneScape: Dragonwilds early access preview – Set in the forgotten continent of Ashenfall, this co-op survival crafting game thrusts players into a world where dragons rule the skies. Gather resources, build shelters, master RuneScape-inspired magic, and uncover ancient secrets as you prepare to challenge the Dragon Queen. Here’s what you need to know before jumping into early access.

RuneScape: Dragonwilds Preview: Pros

Awesome graphics.
19.28GB download size.
Offline mode support.
Controller support.
EPIC account services are the system to allow online play with this title, so an Epic Games Account is needed.
Video settings – Auto detect for either performance or quality, frame rate limit, resolution, upsampling mode, display mode, sharpness, v-sync, and brightness.
Accessibility options – language and font size.
Character creator – name, body type, skin tone, face, eyes and brows, eye color, hairstyle, facial hair, hair color, and eyebrow color.
Three ways to play at the moment – solo, friends only, and online with the community. A fourth coming soon option is dedicated servers.
You begin by having the option to create your own world, setting the type (online/solo), world name, and adding a password if you want.
Friendly fire is a game creation option.
Action survival gameplay.
Optional tutorial missions, but you do have a library of all tutorials and messages.
Beautiful animated art scene cutscenes with voice work, giving it a storybook-like feel.
A full 3D game world, and you have 360-degree camera control.
Button prompts show up on interactive elements and people you can talk with.
A compass at the top will show objectives and points of interest.
Multiple choice encounters.
All enemies or objects you attack will show a health bar.
Old school rock and sticks gameplay, scavenge from the world, punch trees for wood, collect stones, etc, to learn recipes.
Simple, easy-to-use build menu.
Full inventory management system.
The game world is beautiful, and its charm and atmosphere remind me of Fable 3’s world.
Hover over text on everything Interactive.
Play how you want, and that is highly encouraged.
The Hotbar allows you to add items and weapons, and tools to it for quick selection.
The stamina system is in play for running, jumping, swimming, and fighting.
You level up stats and mechanics by doing them over and over, like foraging for supplies will increase your level.
Food and drink meters are in the game, and they go down as you walk and run around.
There is a full day and night cycle.
Craft clothing and sets of clothing for buffs and bonuses.
Gear and weapons can degrade over time from use, but you can use resources to repair them.
The world is fascinating, very magical, like with it coming to life night and day, to the animals, to the magic of the runes, to huge dragons flying overhead.
Crafting and taking food and drink have cool cool-down and building timers.
Building is straightforward, as you can snap pieces together, you get a green outline of the piece to show where it can go, and red when it cannot go there.
Combat is a bit hack-and-slash, but you can get a shield and learn patterns using countering as an offensive move.
Everything in the world has a weight attached to it, and you have a weight limit; otherwise, you become slower and sluggish.
A lot of characters to meet, who, half the time, give good advice and can help you.
The map uncovers as you explore and fills in points of interest, and you can add your own markers.
There are main story objectives and many, many optional side quests.
Levelling up tools will add new buffs or upgrades to them.
I like that things can only happen at night or only during the day, as it gives both more purpose and meaning.
Find and read lore books.
When hitting a tree or smashing rocks, you can just hold the button down.
I do really like how, when you learn a new skill,l a pop-up video comes up showing it in action with instructions underneath. I thought it would be a distraction, but no.
Learn and equip spells for both attacks, but also to help farm resources and materials from the world.
It is a very deep game and a huge timesink.

RuneScape: Dragonwilds Preview: Cons

No Steam achievements as of yet.
You have to get an Epic Games account in order to play online or with friends.
When playing with a controller, do you still need a keyboard for name entries?
I couldn’t always access all the menus and options when using the controller.
Performance issues are common, no matter what I change, the game will hitch a lot and get slowdown in built-up areas.
Despite the font size option, all pop-ups in-game are really small, and it makes them almost unreadable when playing on a big TV.
The little cursor you have on screen at all times is what has to be facing something to interact with it, and when on the controller, that makes it a pain, as you have to basically be hunched over all the time.
Feedback on the menus and navigation is not great.
No matter what, I could not get the crafting to work with the controller; I had it where I could either not click the crafting button or had to go in and back out of the crafting menus several times until it recognised my inputs.
No clear way of saving or knowing when you last saved.
Enemies respawn way too often, and for me, it felt personal as they always spawned behind me!
Combat is clunky and slow; even with a few spells and upgrades, it’s just not that engaging.